International Journal of Medical Laboratory

7

Authors: Abbas Ali jafari *, Abbas Fallah-Tafti, Ali Fattahi-bafghi, Benafsha Arzy

Background and Aims: Different Candida species, especially Candida albicans have been known as part of human oral cavity normal flora. Changes in the oral environment resulting from tooth loss or denture application can affect oral micro-flora. The general purpose of the current study was to determine Candida species occurrence rate in the oral cavity of denture wearer patients in comparison with those without denture. Materials and Methods: A total 30 edentulous elderly with complete removable denture and 30 dentulous elderly people, who had been admitted for non-prosthetic treatments, were randomly selected in Yazd dentistry department. Their oral rinse samples were collected for mycological examination, and cultured on CHROMagar Candida plates. Frequency and density of Candida species isolated from both groups were compared using SPSS software with T-test, and differences were considered significant at p<0.05. Results: Oral Candida species were isolated from 63.3% of edentulous people with dentures in comparison with 33.3% dentulous elderly persons (p=0.001). Non-albicans Candida species were isolated more frequently in denture wearers compared with the dentulous group (p=0.03). There was no significant difference between both groups in case of Candida albicans isolation (p=0.09). Conclusions: The findings of the current study show that long-term use of dentures in edentulous denture users can result in a wide Candida species colonization, causing denture stomatitis.

8

Authors: Maryam Asadi, Hossein Hadinedoushan *, Seyed Ali Mirghanizadeh, Alireza Karimollah, Fatemehsadat Dashti, Saeid Malek-hosseini

Background and Aims: The present study was performed to investigate the effect of Echinops lasiolepis extract on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) proliferation and interferon (IFN)-&gamma secretion. Materials and Methods: PBMCs were obtained from three healthy volunteers and cultured in presence of Echinops lasiolepis methanol extract in different concentrations of 0.1, 1, 10, 100 and 200 µg/ml. Lipopolysacharide (LPS) and Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) were considered as mitogen. BrdU cell proliferation assay was used to determine cell proliferation. The concentration of IFN-&gamma in the PBMCs supernatant was determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Most concentrations of Echinops lasiolepis methanol extract showed inhibitory effect on PBMCs proliferation. There were significant differences between the concentrations of 200, 1 and 0.1 µg/ml (p<0.05). The optimum proliferation (30.66±24.67%) was obtained at concentration 1 µg/ml. The PBMCs supernatant IFN-&gamma concentrations in extract treated group without PHA and LPS and in PHA activated group were not significantly different. Conclusions: Our findings indicated that Echinops lasiolepis extract has immunomodulating activity which may be potentialy to used as an immunotherapy agent.

10

Authors: Seyedhossein Hekmatimoghaddam, Ali Jebali *

Background and Aims: The aim of this study was to synthesize antibody-conjugated radioactive(thorium oxide) nanoparticles (ACRNPs) and folic acid-conjugated radioactive nanoparticles (FACRNPs). Materials and Methods: After synthesis of nanoparticles, blood samples from CLL patients and normal subjects were obtained, and their mononuclear cells were isolated by Ficoll method. To evaluate cytotoxicity, serial concentrations of ACRNPs and FACRNPs were separately added to cancerous and normal mononuclear cells, incubated for 12 hours at 37 ºC, and then different assays including MTT, MTS, cell metabolic, and ATP assay were carried out. On the other hand, the mononuclear cells were captured by anti-CD20 antibody in the polystyrene tube, and then ACRNPs and FACRNPs were separately added to them. After washing, the radioactivity (counts per minute (CPM)) of each tube was read. Results: The images obtained from electron microscopy showed that both ACRNPs and FACRNPs were spherical with the same size (near 50 nm). This study obviously demonstrated a direct relationship between CPM and concentration of ACRNPs and FACRNPs in both cancerous and normal samples. Also, there was a significant difference between CPM of cancerous and normal samples after treatment with ACRNPs or FACRNPs (P<0.05). However, an inverse relationship between concentration of ACRNPs or FACRNPs and their toxicity. Was found Significant difference was observed between toxicity of ACRNPs or FACRNPs on the cancerous and normal samples (P<0.05). Conclusions: It can be concluded that both ACRNPs and FACRNPs have good efficacy for detection of CLL cells.

15

Authors: Ali Dehghani Firoozabadi, Samaneh Shojaeii, Hossien Hadinedoushan *

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding regulatory RNAs molecules with a size of approximately 22 nucleotides that are implicated in regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional regulatory levels. Inflammatory disorders especially autoimmune diseases (ADs) occur from an abnormal immune response of body against cells of their own specific tissues or multiple organ systems leading to chronic and sustain inflammatory responses and thus contribute to cell damage. Some recent studies have reported that several miRNAs may be expressed differentially in ADs and other inflammatory diseases which can have a critical role in immune response modulation and autoimmunity. This review is focused on the role of miRNAs in the pathogenesis and progression of several autoimmune diseases.